Indiana men’s basketball entered Wednesday night’s contest against Penn State in desperate need of both a resume and morale-boosting win. What started out as an encouraging display of resilience on the road quickly turned into an 85-66 blowout loss — the Hoosiers’ third consecutive defeat against an unranked conference opponent.
Senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds, once again playing through lower back pains that caused him to sit out during Indiana’s winter break slate. Freshman guard Jalen Hood-Schifino has continued to show increased signs of comfort since the outset of the season, dropping 11 points from nifty, self-created shot attempts to go along with six rebounds and four assists.
Still Indiana’s loss exposed even more faults than those against Iowa on Friday and Northwestern on Sunday. Aside from an offense that has been stagnant for most of the season and a drop in confidence since losing graduate guard Xavier Johnson and forward Race Thompson to injury, there were three major avoidable issues that plagued the Hoosiers’ chance at a bounce-back victory.
Turnovers
Indiana committed 11 costly turnovers in the loss. Considering the Hoosiers were averaging 15.4 in their losses heading into the matchup, 11 isn’t a terrible mark when taken into account on its own.
However, the miscues and disconnects became fatal when Penn State capitalized on them — an almost perpetual occurrence. The Nittany Lions scored 17 points off turnovers in a 19-point win, picking apart a scattered Hoosier defense with quick ball movement, strong drives and ambitious 3-point attempts that saw the bottom of the net more often than not.
As opposed to travels, carries and double dribbles that would have resulted in a Penn State inbounds play, most of Indiana’s turnovers fell into the live ball category. From errant passes to loose-ball scrambles to shaky ballhandling, four turnovers from Jackson-Davis and two apiece from Hood-Schifino and freshman forward Malik Reneau played a large part in creating transition opportunities for the Nittany Lions and a massive deficit for the Hoosiers.
Defensive rotations
Penn State made an astounding 58.1% of its shots from beyond the 3-point line, sinking 18 attempts as a team in a lopsided shooting clinic. Then again, it’s not all that challenging for Division I basketball players to make wide open shots.
Indiana’s guards struggled defensively throughout the entire game. In turn, players like Jackson-Davis, Reneau and junior forward Jordan Geronimo — defenders that are vastly more comfortable while guarding the lane —had to switch on and off Penn State’s perimeter facilitators.
Nittany Lion senior guard Seth Lundy torched almost every Hoosier on head coach Mike Woodson’s roster, shooting 7-12 from beyond the arc en route to a game-high 25 points.
Late recoveries, defensive mismatches and a tendency to overhelp quickly blemished an Indiana defense that came into the game hoping to maintain a clean slate. The Nittany Lions’ ball movement made the Hoosiers look lost, hopeless and confused, chasing after the ball as wildly as a dog with a frisbee.
Missed free throws
Free throws are an all-or-nothing facet of the game, so it’s clear when they’ve played a big part in a loss.
The Hoosiers shot 10-18 from the charity stripe, totaling a season-low 55.6%. Jackson-Davis recorded a 6-10 slate, shooting nearly 10% worse than his season average up to that point.
Hood-Schifino, who has had an inconsistent showing from the line all season, missed both of his attempts on the night — the first of which came on a one-and-one setup. Sophomore guard Tamar Bates was the only Hoosier to shoot 100% in that category with a 2-2 performance.
Free throws didn’t play as big of a role later in the game, but missed first-half opportunities by Indiana to extend the lead, tie the game or cut down the deficit could have helped the Hoosiers claim some ounce of control in an otherwise mismatched contest.
Mental toughness has been a big question as of late, especially after Indiana blew a 21-point lead against Iowa and gave up more than 80 points to Northwestern in a loss at home. The Nittany Lions’ thrashing of the Hoosiers Wednesday night only added insult to injury — no pun intended — to a team that has seen almost everything go awry in the past month.
